HIST103: World History (1600–Present)

The declaration of war by the French Legislative Assembly on April 20, 1792, against the "King of Bohemia and Hungary" initiated the French Revolutionary Wars. It was a conventional war in the traditional sense. The assembly was dominated by the Girondin faction of the Jacobin party under the leadership of Jacques-Pierre Brissot (1754–1793).

Internal political crisis led to the desperate measure to concoct a foreign war, thereby diverting public attention away from domestic affairs. Brissot's objectives were the stabilization of the constitutional monarchy and the acquisition of territory from the Austrian Netherlands. There is little here that represents a radical departure in terms of European politics. Unfortunately for Brissot, two factors severely hampered his modest goals and ultimately led to his fall from power and the overthrow of the French monarchy.

In February 1792, Austria and Prussia established a formal alliance that included provisions on defense against French aggression. Thus, when France declared war, Prussia made common cause with Austria. Secondly, the French army was in no condition to fight a war, no matter how limited.

The decades between 1763 and 1789 witnessed significant reform of the leadership, composition, organization, and military policy of the French army. Cost-cutting measures, however, led to a dramatic reduction in army size. In 1789, the army had no more than 156,000 men. The Austrians and Prussians fielded at optimum wartime strength 497,000 and 195,000 men, respectively.¹⁰

The French National Assembly called for volunteers in 1791, and by the outbreak of war, 220,000 men formed the line army and the National Guard. The majority of soldiers served in the latter, as the line army was seen by many – incorrectly – as a den of monarchists. The officer corps and the cavalry were seriously eroded by resignations and the emigration of nobles.¹¹

The professionals of the line army formed the backbone of the Revolutionary Army. The National Guard combined motivated volunteers and soldiers who left the line army and joined the National Guard as a sign of their support for the revolution, as well as for opportunities for advancement.¹²

Poor provisioning and lack of discipline among the National Guard resulted in disaster.¹³ By the summer, Duke Charles William Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1735–1806) led a Prusso-German army across the Lower Rhine and made short work of French forces and fortresses in his way. The invasion led to the revolution of August 10 in Paris, which overthrew the monarchy and brought down Brissot's government. It was the beginning of the radicalization of the revolution and a period of the war in which ideology played an important role in the expansion of the conflict, which encompassed much of Western and Central Europe.

The First Coalition against Revolutionary France initially included only Austria, Prussia, and a few German princely territories, such as Hessen-Kassel and Saxe-Weimar. There was no declaration of Reichskrieg (Imperial War), but Austria and Prussia compelled German princes to participate. After French armies violated the territory of the Reich in late 1792, the Imperial German contingents fully mobilized.¹⁴

In February 1793, France declared war on Britain, Spain, and the Netherlands. The expansion of the conflict was the product of ideological hubris following the execution of Louis XVI and the successful military campaigns in the fall of 1792.¹⁵ The republican leadership in Paris assumed these feats of arms would be repeated in the spring. The desire to spread the Revolution and French influence into the Rhineland, Belgium, and Italy fueled this expansionism. Late 1792 witnessed the realization of traditional French objectives, with French armies reaching the perceived "natural frontiers" of the Rhine and the Alps.¹⁶

Movement beyond these frontiers constituted a departure from the original aims of the war when it was declared earlier that year. French republicanism had become a central motivation, as the Jacobins who had seized power in August had previously rejected the Brissotin call for war. Now that victory was at hand, they embraced it and made it their own.

As the revolution was exported outside of France during the French Revolutionary Wars, its reception in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the German and Italian states varied. In all states overrun by French armies, sympathizers – or collaborators – emerged from among the local populations. Similarly, hostility to the ideology propounded by the new regimes, combined with the experience of military occupation, created antipathy toward the new regimes.

It is difficult to generalize about the response to French conquest and annexation or the establishment of satellite republics because the response varied. Nonetheless, the response was characterized by both support and resistance and in roughly equal measure.

French Revolutionary diplomats continually confounded negotiations by rejecting standard conventions.¹⁷ The behavior of French diplomats during the most radical phase of the Revolution resulted in arguments over the minutiae of negotiations rather than substantive discussions. After the fall of the Jacobin dictatorship in 1795 and the establishment of the Directory, diplomats pursued a more traditional path during peace talks.

By March 1793, France faced a coalition that included virtually all of Europe except Russia. The success of military operations in the fall of 1792 led to overconfidence in the Jacobin regime and resulted in an overextension of national and military resources.¹⁸ Furthermore, internal tensions resulting from the overthrow of the constitutional monarchy and the establishment of the Republic led to rebellion in the Vendée and in the manufacturing and port cities of Lyon, Marseilles, and Toulon.

The outbreak of civil war in the midst of the external conflict contributed directly to the Revolution reaching its most radical form. The Committee of Public Safety, composed of twelve members who included Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) by July 1793, imposed ideological goals on the war. Political commissars known as representatives en mission were attached to the respective French armies. Defeat, defeatism, or any challenges to directives from Paris were met with denunciation, arrest, and often execution. The introduction of representatives departed from traditional norms regarding political influence on military operations, as a French marshal or general under Louis XIV or XV might, on occasion, face disgrace for failure but never execution.¹⁹

The failure of French arms during the spring and summer of 1793 led to the famous levée en masse of August. The levy conscripted all males between 18 and 45. It was the first national draft in modern history. The decree was meant to bolster the ranks of the French armies. The number of recruits grew after 1791 through successful calls for volunteers. While sufficient to cope with the war against Austria and Prussia, the expansion of the war to all of France's frontiers was followed by a less than enthusiastic response to the call for new soldiers in early 1793. The role of the levée en masse in this phase of the war has been exaggerated. By the end of 1793, the French ranks swelled to 750,000, but the threats that led to the decree had abated by the campaign season of 1794. Indeed, the rapid expansion of French armies created enormous logistical problems that continued to affect operations through the remainder of the War of the First Coalition.²⁰

The following demonstrates trends in the size of the French army during the period 1791–1799:²¹

• 1791 138,000
• 1792 220,000
• 1793 750,000
• 1794 600,000
• 1795 400,000
• 1796 380,000
• 1797 380,000
• 1798 350,000
• 1799 400,000

The coalition's war effort faltered in 1793–1794 due to a lack of coordination. Manpower requirements to keep pace with the expansion of French armies and the economic cost of the war strained allied governments. Furthermore, cracks in the alliance between Austria, Prussia, and Spain began to appear by late 1794.

A French invasion of Spain led to the occupation of Catalonia. Furthermore, Russian expansion in the rump of Poland led Prussia to focus its attention eastward once again. The establishment of the moderate Directory in France, and its desire to reduce the number of enemies it faced, permitted active and fruitful negotiations with Prussia and Spain that concluded in the Peace of Basel in 1795.

The treaty of Basel neutralized north Germany, and the Netherlands was abandoned to the French. An Austrian army remained active on the upper Rhine and forced the south German princes to continue the fight. Britain also remained committed to the coalition. The Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia held the Alpine gates with Austrian support. The coalition now actively sought Russian participation, but Tsarina Catherine II was too focused on devouring the rest of Poland. At the same time, Lazare Carnot (1753–1823), the French Minister of War and "Organizer of Victory," reallocated forces from the inactive fronts to the Rhine and Italy.

The War of the First Coalition had taken the form of previous European wars. Although the French overran Belgium and western Germany, the coalition retained the capacity to withstand the French until the diplomatic settlements of 1795. Even with French reinforcements, the coalition seemed capable of keeping the French at bay in Germany and Italy. Napoleon's campaign in Italy in 1796, however, broke the back of the coalition.²²

In the spring of 1797, Napoleon invaded Austria from Italy and advanced to within 120 miles of Vienna. Fearing the approach of the French army, Emperor Francis II (1768–1835) offered an armistice at Leoben and then negotiated a permanent conclusion to the war. The Treaty of Campo Formio ended the War of the First Coalition in 1797, resulting in a resounding French victory.

The Habsburgs exchanged their holdings in Italy for compensation in the Holy Roman Empire. The Venetian Republic lost its independence and became an Austrian-occupied territory. The Habsburgs also recognized the French annexation of Belgium and the west bank of the Rhine.